Oscar Mayer

Oscar Ferdinand Mayer ( born March 29, 1859 in the municipality Kösingen, now part of Neresheim, † March 11, 1955 ) was an American entrepreneur. He emigrated from Germany to the U.S. and became one of the largest sausage manufacturers in the world. The advertising jingle " Oh, I wish I were Oscar Mayer wiener on " has become part of American popular culture.

Life

Oscar Mayer had a very early stage to accept his father's death. He first started a butcher apprenticeship in Nördlingen. Following the emigration, Mayer was hired at the age of 14 years at the wholesale meat markets of Detroit and Chicago. His brother Gottfried, a skilled butcher, who had last been active in Nuremberg, joined him and together they took over in 1883 a butcher shop in the north of Chicago; Gottfried was Oscar to production manager. Within a short time the store was a huge success, especially the many resident German -Americans valued the offered German specialties such as goat, liver and white sausage. Finally, Max, the third of the Mayer brothers, the German homeland and was left to the head of the finances of the family business. With the growing success became larger the company, by 1900 it had about 40 employees and offered a citywide delivery service by horse and carriage. 1904, the sausage and meat products were first marketed with a brand name, though initially under the name Edelweiss.

Oscar Mayer Wiener

After a few more name changes, the unified brand Oscar Mayer was introduced in 1929. At this time, Oscars son of the same had already taken over management of the company. The distinguishing feature of the company, the sausages were now a yellow label, which made her stand out from the crowd of competitors. To increase the awareness of the brand further, the Wienermobile was put into service from 1936, which is on the way as advertising even today across the United States. Since 1963, the Oscar Mayer jingle is played almost unchanged with only minor text changes, it has become so popular that it is in the repertoire of marching bands and is often performed during the halftime of American football games at high schools and colleges.